Project Summary Our broad research goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of stochastic cellular and developmental processes, during which form and pattern emerge from the simple beginnings of a fertilized egg. In specific, we pursue questions of how clocks are designed and coordinate to produce collective behaviors with spatiotemporal accuracy during embryo development. Our research emphasizes on both the development of novel methods and applications to relevant questions. One research goal is to develop an interdisciplinary platform that enables computational search and experimental reconstitution and manipulation of biological oscillators, to determine the recurring clock network topologies and functions. The other is to understand how a pattern is formed with high spatiotemporal accuracy during zebrafish somitogenesis, through the interactions of multiple clocks, including a mitotic clock to ?tell? a cell when to proliferate and a segmentation clock to ?tell? when a somite is to form. The two research directions are interrelated. Theoretical modeling, microfluidics, and advanced imaging tools at the single molecule and single cell levels will facilitate the investigation of these phenomena.